


William Cooper Story Idea

by ulrikavolf16



Category: RED (2010)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-05
Updated: 2014-01-05
Packaged: 2018-01-07 12:28:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1119825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ulrikavolf16/pseuds/ulrikavolf16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Story idea I had for William Cooper after RED (years later). Stream of consciousness, not really a regularly formatted. Use your imagination and enjoy.</p>
<p>Family: William Cooper, Michelle Cooper (wife), Benjamin (Ben)(son), and Kaitlin (daughter)</p>
            </blockquote>





	William Cooper Story Idea

It's my head cannon that after the events of RED, William Cooper did get a promotion for figuring out and handling the corruption from Alexander Denning and for saving the VP, but he turns is down for a nice quiet desk job. As quiet as a man of his skill can have with the CIA.

He becomes a head of a team, but instead of going out into the field he's the one who organizes and runs ops from the background. The one watching the monitors and surveillance or calling in air support or whatever the field team needs to finish their job properly. He stays in the office most of the time running the logistics of the ops and filing reports. It is very different from his job before, but he doesn’t mind.

He actually takes time out to go talk to Henry, the Records Keeper,  about Frank breaking in and Henry giving him the file (which Cooper returns). Henry and Cooper actually become pretty good friends at work. Cooper finds time everyday to bring down lunch or coffee for Henry (Its like a break for Cooper). Henry tells old CIA war stories (He's been working there since before Cooper was born) and Cooper talks about his time in the military, things going on upstairs, and his family. Henry takes a liking to the 'kid' because Cooper is nice to him (treats him like an actual person and not just the CIA Records Keeper). That and he doesn't mind the attention of a 'hot young thing'*.

  * *I have this sub-head cannon (not pertaining to story too much) that Henry is gay.  (Spurred from when Henry was affirming  Frank's description of Cooper in RED - "Hair was cute.") He's one of those old gay guys who lived in a time when being gay was EXTREMELY taboo and now he's too old to give a shit what people. Frank knew. Cooper knows too, but doesn’t care. Henry doesn't come on to him or make him feel awkward (not that he would), and they both just laugh when Henry every so often calls him a 'hunk'



So story opens with Cooper coming home late from work, like it is just after 2 AM early.  Michelle, his wife, is still awake, lying on the couch waiting for him in front of their fire place. He's been gone since the night before after he got an urgent call from work. Cooper doesn't say anything to her at first, just quietly puts away his coat and stows his brief case. She sits up on the couch as he comes over. She sees how tired he looks. It was a bad day at work. **

  * ** Second sub-head cannon. She knows. She knows he works for the CIA and he doesn’t keep secrets from her. My head cannon is that she also had worked for the CIA. That's how they met.
    * They saw each other in passing at Langley but didn’t work together until an assignment in Milan to take down a dangerous weapons buyer (would sell them to terrorists and stuff). Michelle was to take the part of the high class Parisian weapons dealer who had a thing for an entourage of boyfriends (who also were her body guards). Cooper and two others were to be her "boyfriends". Cooper was always serious and rarely smiled, but Michelle found that when they were together she could make him smile (and once even laugh). While arranging the deal in Milan, they get followed and 'investigated'. Michelle is the one who pulls the whole, 'Kiss me. We're supposed to be dating." thing. (Cooper's the best kisser of the bunch). So, they finish the deal and take down the guy. There's some fighting and gun play, Michelle and Cooper both handle it like bamfs. Afterward, they have an open night before their flight back and Michelle gets Cooper to take her out to dinner. (Cooper isn't at all awkward around women btw, she just asked him first) There ends up being dancing at the restaurant they go to and they dance. ….
      * They turned slowly with the music. Michelle's eyes scanned the restaurant around them before her gaze returned to her dance partner. Cooper is staring down at her, a small smile on his face.



_"Got a good look at the room?" he asks quietly, so none of the other dancers can hear._

_"Yeah. No one is going to try and kill us for now." she replied with a small smirk of her own._

_"Good." he breaths. "Kiss me."_

_Michelle raises an eyebrow incredulously._

_"Ops over Cooper." she says. Cooper leans in and whispers into her ear._

_"I know."_

  * Michelle was thinking of retiring anyway, so she leaves the CIA so they can get married. When she gets pregnant with Ben (their son), Cooper does only the jobs that keep him state side.



He kneels down and lies his head on her knees, arms wrapping around her legs. She gently runs a hand over his hair.  ….

_"Bad day?" she asks quietly, the firelight glowing orange against the back of William's dress shirt. He nods into her lap._

_"The kids asleep?" he asks. Michelle glances at the stairs. No lights were coming down._

_"Yeah." she says before asking, "What happened?" William doesn't answer right away._

_"The operation in the Ukraine went south in a bad way. Cover, safe houses, extraction plans… everything got blown. We lost… two. Gregory and Tompkins. The others we managed to get to Moldova and scrambled a pick up flight back to the States." he mumbles into her leg. She runs her hand through his short hair, letting quiet fall across them for a while. Michelle gently lifted his head and looks into his eyes, dark circles beneath them and red rimmed._

_"It is not your fault." she said steadily. William looks away._

_"Yes it is." he insists. "I should have…" he starts but he's lost for words._

_"Should have what, Will? You weren't on the ground with them. You did everything you could. You got ten back. Ten, Will. Gregory and Tompkins… weren't your fault." she says, leaning her head so she can meet his gaze again. William only blinks slowly. Michelle gently rubs her thumb across his cheek, stubbly from not having had time to shave at all._

_"You have to go in tomorrow?" she asks._

_"Yeah. They'll need the finished report and I'll need to debrief the ten." he said with a sigh. "How are things here?" he asks. Michelle sighs._

_"Things have been pretty quiet. Kaitlin got a B+ on her science report." William nods at this, they had been worried about Kaitlin's science grades, but she was improving. "And Ben is mad at you."_

_William's eyebrows meet in confusion and concern._

_"His soccer game was this afternoon." she explained._

_"Shit." William swore quietly, letting his head drop down again. It had been a playoff game and he had promised Ben that he would be there. But shit hit the fan and he hadn't made it. He had completely forgotten._

_Michelle kissed the top of his head._

_"Talk to him in the morning." she said gently. "Come to bed."_

 

Next morning Cooper is up at his usual time, getting ready to go to work. Ben isn't talking to him. When Kaitlin (their daughter) asks why he was gone so long he gives this bullshit answer that one of the partners at his business firm got into trouble and he had to go clean it up. Ben gets ready to get into his mom's car but Cooper takes him to school in his car (he and Kaitlin go to different schools because of grade level). Awkward father-pissed son car ride. Cooper tries to talk to Ben, apologize for missing the game. Finally Ben starts talking. Well, yelling. Yells at Cooper for never making it to the stuff that's important to him. Cooper counters with being there for Ben's boy scout ceremonies and football games (when he was little). Ben yells about how he wasn’t a dad who showed up for camping trips and how the boy scouts and football was something his dad wanted him to do. Soccer was something that Ben really wanted to do, on his own, is really important to him cause he's good at it (tall like his dad and fast). Ben even swears at him. They are in front of Ben's school. ...

_"Ben-"_

_"Jesus christ dad!  You're never there!" Ben yells._

_"Ben… I am so sorry. I'm… " 'trying' he thinks. "Look. I promise-"_

_"Don't make a promise you can’t fucking keep." Ben opens the car door and gets out, shoving his back pack on his back._

_"C'mon Ben. Can we just talk-" William tries to call after him._

_"God! Just leave me alone! I hate you!" Ben yells, slamming the door._

Shift to Ben's perspective. He's been at school for a couple hours now. One of the main office workers bursts into his class. She's relieved to see him. Tells him to come to the office. Ben grabs his stuff and follows (of course his classmates are doing the 'OOoooOOOOOoohhhh' crap). He has no idea what's going on. There are two cops waiting in the office. As soon as Ben shows up one of the cops talks into his radio. ("We've got the boy. He's been at school.") They take Ben out of school and back to his house. His mom and sister are there with some more cops and detectives.

Cooper's car was found abandoned on the road he usually takes to work. His car had been t-boned and there were signs of a struggle. There are bullet holes, blood inside and outside the car. (Not all of it is Cooper's btw). But there is no sign of Cooper. Detectives think he was ambushed and mugged (looks like a bad mugging) and got taken for ransom or something.

Henry, Cooper's friend who is the Records Keeper, calls up the house to ask where Cooper is. Didn't show up for work today (didn't come down to talk to him). Michelle takes the call, tells Henry what they know (knowing silence on both ends).

Henry calls up Frank Moses for help. Frank agrees to help, he kind of owes Cooper a favor since he was the one who took over cleaning up the mess 'Grandpa' made with kidnapping the VP. AND (as Henry informs him) even though Moses is still a wanted man by the CIA, Cooper has been keeping the CIA off Frank's tail. Plus, Frank kind of likes the "kid", kindred spirits, and knows that Cooper is a good man.

So, the next night, Frank goes out to the Cooper house (same place as before) and is greeted by Michelle, who's pointing a gun at him. (My idea is that she is ex-CIA **). She knows who Frank is, and how he broke into their house, so she doesn't trust him at first. Frank tries to calmly explain himself and why he is there. Finally, she accepts his (and the RED team's) help because the cops and the CIA working on the case are getting nowhere.

 

Re-enter the Cooper children, Ben and Kaitlin. Their mom and Frank explain to them what they think is happening (Cooper got taken for something he knows because of his past work at the CIA). Ben and Kaitlin had no idea he was CIA. William and Michelle told the kids that he worked for a business management firm or some mucky muck normal person job, because they wanted to protect them from the truth. Ben isn't convinced. Frank tells Ben about what really happened that day his dad came home all beaten up (blamed broken stairs), that it was actually him. And explains the time when all hell broke loose with the cops storming the house and then their dad came home early (the one time he had ever seen his dad scared), was because Frank had broken into their house and threatened them.

 

So, Ben (who is a teenager) is pissed off that his parents were keeping secrets from them. He's also pissed off at himself because he's worried about his dad and the last time he saw his dad they got into a fight and he had told his dad that he had hated him and now he doesn't know if he'll ever see his dad again. 

  * Something that should be said about the Cooper house is that, after the whole 'Frank breaking into the house' thing, William redesigned the security of the house. He made it a defendable fortress (all unseen from the outside. The house looks normal). There's, like, a panic room and hidden weapons lockers/vaults, steal doors (hidden within wooden faces) with heavy bolts.



While Frank is out investigating, Victoria and Marvin stay at the house and guard the family. Frank thinks that whomever took Cooper would try and take the family and use them as leverage against Cooper to get him to talk. Marvin, however, does his usual, stupid, 'talk-about-Cooper's-potential-fate-(torture and other bad shit)-loud-enough-and-blatant-enough-for-his-kids-to-hear'. Ben cant really handle this, so he sneaks out of the house without either of them, or his mom noticing. Walking calms him, lets him think. As he is walking through the woods behind their house he gets kidnapped by the bad guys (Frank was right).

Victoria is the one who finally realizes that Ben is gone (disappeared while she and Marvin were arguing) They have to tell Frank, and he is pissed at them. Now it's a race to find both Ben and Cooper, and now that they have leverage the bad guys are more likely to hurt and/or kill more freely.

The bad guys bring Ben to where they are holding William, who hasn't broken and given them what they want. (Maybe its security codes or details on an op or something. IDK) But they don’t have them see each other yet. They have been torturing William Cooper. He's on his knees with arms retrained outstretched to a crossbeam behind him. Shirt is ripped open and there's cuts and burns and scrapes and bruises everywhere. His head is bleeding from the crash. Its not pretty. You think the fight with Frank was bad (in RED)? This is worse. But Cooper still doesn't break or say anything (he does yell in pain/grunts/gasps, because that shit hurts), and keeps his composure (his training taught him better).

Cooper's tired and weak, they've been doing this dance for three days now, still doesn't break. That is, until they show that they have Ben. The bad guys don't show Ben to him, just take his cellphone (which Ben has on him all the time, inseparable, like normal teenagers). Ben fights back a little against his captors (Dad's mandatory self-defense classes), but this only pissed them off. They hurt him a little and make him yell in pain (I'm thinking that they give him a bloody nose and maybe a cigarette burn or two). Ben and Cooper can't see each other, only hear.

From Ben's side, everything goes quiet (and by that I mean what Ben hears from his dad goes quiet). Ben's dragged out of the storage room/office the bad guys have been holding him in and sees his dad all bloody. Cooper said he wouldn't start talking until he saw his son and made sure he's ok.

_They dragged Ben across the smooth concrete floor, not letting him catch his footing. The zip tie around his wrists was tight and cut into his skin. He was shoved to his knees in front of his dad._

_"You have five minutes." Ben couldn't place the accent as the leader in the black leather jacket spoke.  Ben couldn't meet his dad's eyes, so he looked down at the ground. There was blood everywhere. Ben clenched his jaw and swallowed as his stomach turned. He wanted to kill every one of their captors._

_"Ben? Ben… look at me." his dad's voice was tired and strained. Ben looked up and met gaze, full of concern._

_"Are you ok? You're bleeding. Did they hurt you?" Cooper says. Its obvious he wants to strain against bonds and get to his son. Ben lifts his bound hands and wipes away the blood under his nose._

_"Ben. Are you ok?"_

_"Yeah…" Ben says quietly._

 

Suddenly, under the five minutes, their captors are back and are pulling Ben away. Cooper yells at them to let Ben go. The kid knows nothing. He'll talk. Cooper is practically begging them not to hurt Ben. When they are dragging him away, it’s the second time Ben has ever seen his dad scared.

It’s a while, but not too long, like an hour or so before Frank and the RED team show up to rescue them. But they are outnumbered and outgunned so they all have to run.

Cooper keeps Ben near him as they're running. Frank fills in Cooper on the plan as they are running. Get to the get away car (Marvin's driving). Victoria peels off to take her position to give cover fire. Shit storm of action sequences ensue, being shot at (when they have to take cover Cooper puts himself over Ben, like giving him more cover. Ben doesn't notice. Too much adrenaline). Cooper is still weak, but he is able to fight some. While they are running Ben gets to see what a badass his dad is, even though he is weak. (Like there is one point where a bad guy comes at him with a knife and Cooper gets is away and stabs the guy. Kills him. Ben is like 'Holy shit… my dad is so cool.') He and Ben get separated from Frank (was the three of them).

Cooper and Ben somehow end up in a parking garage (running and looking for the others). Victoria is across in another building with a sniper rifle taking down bad guys from afar (Frank is in the thick of it killing bad guys too) and trying to find Cooper and Ben. Frank and Victoria take out the rest of the bad guys. Except one. The big daddy mother fucker who's behind it all. As Cooper and Ben round a corner they are faced with this bastard (or lady bastard), gun pointing at Ben. There is an element of revenge in kidnapping Cooper and Ben.

There is the typical "Why I am doing this" short speech. He/She is a corrupt member of the CIA and wants revenge on Cooper for killing Wilkes. Was working with the other bad guys because they wanted something from Cooper and he/she needed the grunts. Is going to make Cooper pay. He/She fires the gun. But doesn't get Ben because Cooper moved in the way in time, shoving Ben back, and taking two shots to the chest. Goes down.

Victoria hears the shots. Before the main bad guy/gal can kill Ben, she takes him/her out and tells Frank where Cooper and Ben are. She sounds worried because she saw Cooper fall. Frank gets to them (level above him). Ben is kneeling by his dad trying to stop the bleeding (Dad's mandatory boy scout emergency med training)(Ben's sort of in shock, just saw a person get their head blown off and his dad's bleeding all over him). Cooper's alive (barely)! Frank calls an ambulance.

_"Parking Garage on E State and Kepling. Fourth level. White male, early 40s, shot twice in the chest."_

_Ben leant all his weight down on his hands, pressed hard against the bullet wounds. His arms felt cold as he had taken off his sweatshirt, pressing the thick material against his dad's chest. But he didn't feel the cold. What he felt was the warmth of his father's blood as it seeped through the jersey. Cooper was starting to still._

_"Dad… Dad? Stay awake Dad. Dad!"_

_In the distance he heard the sirens._

Sirens, lights, scene fade out.

 

New Scene! Ben is sitting with his mom and Kaitlin in the waiting room of the ER. Ben's been bandaged and given some scrubs to replace his bloody clothes. Frank is there, standing off to the side. Victoria and Ivan are there too, semi-standing guard. (Marvin wants nothing to do with hospitals. They freak him out.) Everyone is waiting. It's quiet. Michelle is holding onto Ben and his sister is too tire from crying and is asleep in her lap. Every time a doctor/nurse comes out Ben perks up but no one will answer him about his dad.

 

Finally Ben can't take it anymore and storms off. Frank goes after him, telling Michelle she should wait there if anything changes. Frank finds Ben sitting against the wall a couple hallways away and sits next to him on the floor. Ben's trying not to cry. He feels like a terrible. "I shouldn't have yelled that I hated him. I shouldn't have left the house. I shouldn't have been caught. I should have fought back more. I should've been the one shot." Frank just listened quietly. Ben's sobbing. He's angry that his dad moved in the way and now he might die. Stupid dad. Why did he do that?

Frank lets Ben talk and cry himself quiet.

_Frank waited until Ben had gone quiet before he spoke, calmly._

_"You know… when I first broke into your house all those years ago, I had been planning on killing your dad." Ben looked at him shocked and confused._

_"But I waited." Frank continued. "I had given your dad a choice, what's more important? His career or his family? So I waited to see what he would do. When your dad showed up I knew he valued his family more."_

_Frank paused. Ben listened quietly._

_"Your dad pulled up in that black Tahoe and jumped out of the car. You came running out to meet him. You were a cute kid. He went to you and your mom and sister. I remember…" Frank said quietly with a smile, "When you came running out he ran to you and scooped you up, and held you tight. … That's what convinced me. Convinced me that William Cooper would do anything to protect his family. And that he was a good man."_

_"And now he's going to die…" said Ben, his eyes tearing up and his voice strained._

_"He's not going to die." said Frank. "Your dad is much tougher than he looks." He looked down at Ben. The teen looked so small._

_"When your dad and I fought in his office I threw him against a wall mounted TV, kicked him through a glass table, smashed a telephone to pieces over his head, dislocated his shoulder, and then dropped a big filing cabinet on him and he still managed to get up and chase after me. He even shot me in the arm." Frank smiled. "Your dad will pull through."_

 

Then Victoria shows up and tell them that Cooper has stabilized but is still unconscious. Blood loss, exhaustion, stress, lack of food/water.

 

Two days later Cooper wakes up. Its just Michelle in the room with him. It takes a second or two to figure out where he is and what happened.

_William opened his eyes slowly, groaning at the sunlight that was streaming in through the window._

_"Hey." says Michelle gently, getting up from her place in the chair beside him and leaning over him._

_"Hey." he replies, his throat is dry. He looks up at Michelle and then starts to look around the room._

_"Where…" he starts to ask._

_"Hospital. You've got beat up pretty bad and then shot twice in the chest."_

_William looks at her slightly confused, and then realization of what happened set in. His eyebrows knit together, his breathing quickened and his heart monitor began to beep faster as his heart began to race._

_"Ben." he breaths. "Where's Ben? Is he ok?" he says louder, trying to sit up.  "I have to find Ben. Ben?"_

 

As Michelle is trying to get him to calm down, and as he's trying to get out of bed, Ben and Kaitlin come into the room (they had been going to get something to eat).  Ben never saw his dad so relieved. Ben goes to him and Cooper pulls him into a tight (mutual) hug. Frank stands awkwardly by the door. Family reunion (-barfs happy rainbows-)

 

Later, Michelle is asleep in the armchair, Ben and Kaitlin are sharing the bed next to Cooper's. Cooper and Frank talk. Frank explains how Henry called him, what happened, how the team's been 'taking care of' the people who wanted him for the info (strange assassination in Moscow and Dublin for one). Cooper asks how Sarah is. She's good. Wonders what Frank is going to do. Frank tells Cooper he'll stay the night with them and the team will be gone in the morning.

Cooper gets tired and thanks Frank. Promises to keep the CIA off his tail. Goes to sleep (the pain meds help him drift off). Frank keeps watch until morning. Gets the confimation that all those who wanted to hurt the Coopers are dead (a mafia or some shady organization is now obliterated). Before he leaves Ben wakes up.

_As he stood he heard movement from the extra bed. Turning Frank saw Ben sitting up and climbing out of bed._

_"You heading out?" he asks, getting off the bed. Frank nodded._

_"Yeah. You guys are safe now. It's best that I disappear again."_

_Ben nodded. He held out his hand. Frank took it and shook. The boy had a good, firm handshake for teenager. Ben gives him a smirk very reminicent of his father's._

_"Thanks for everything… Grandpa."_

(THE END)


End file.
